Chapter Eleven

The First Battle

"Where are we?" Bobby heard Diana ask. He thought that was a pretty good question, but before he could take a moment to consider the answer, he heard an animal-like squeal and the sound of something approaching quickly across the rocky terrain. He turned toward the noise and saw a white foal with a reddish mane charging towards him. He put out his arms to steady himself against the impact, but the baby horse not much larger than a beagle surprised him by leaping into his arms, trembling. With shock, Bobby realized the the foal had a single, straight white horn coming out of the center of its forehead. This was no baby horse, but an honest-to-goodness unicorn and for some reason, it was terrified.

"Look out!" Hank shouted. Bobby looked up and saw Hank pointing in the direction from which the foal unicorn had come. Bobby nearly dropped the unicorn as he realized what Hank had seen. It was impossible. It was simply impossible. About two hundred yards away from where they stood, an actual living, breathing, winged dinosaur was landing on the rocky terrain. The ground shook with the impact of the tremendous lizard and Bobby realized that he had been mistaken. This creature was no dinosaur, but a dragon, straight out of the fairly tales Sheila had read to him when he was younger. The beast was six or seven stories tall with bright crimson scales and dull leathery red wings. It walked on two massive hind legs and had two other smaller limbs that could probably function as either legs or arms depending on how it was walking. Nothing, however, was as terrifying as its five heads. It had one large red head at the end of a thick, serpentine neck. This head was surrounded by four smaller heads also on snake-like necks. To the right of the main head were a white head below a green one. On the creature's left side a black head sat beneath a blue one. Each of the five heads sported a long, fang-filled muzzle and they were all bellowing a terrible, hideous growl that reminded Bobby of the time his class had taken a field trip to a factory that made jet engines and they had been allowed to watch as a technician fired up one of the impressive machines from just yards away. This sound was like that, but much, much louder. Bobby, still carrying the baby unicorn, turned and fled from the beast and he noticed the others doing the same. He realized with dismay that they were all heading toward the base of a cliff that offered no escape. Within seconds they would be trapped between the dragon and the sheer rock face. Breathing became more difficult as he ran and a stitch was forming in his side. The unicorn was becoming heavier and Bobby feared he would either drop the poor creature or trip and fall, sending both of them tumbling to the ground in the path of the monster that was chasing them.

"Fear not," cried a voice to Bobby's left and Bobby did trip now as he looked to see who was speaking. Hank, who had been running along side him, grabbed one of his leather shoulder straps to keep him from falling. They both stared in surprise at the little man who had addressed them. He was short, shorter even than Bobby and was quite old. The top of his head was bald, but on the sides of his head flowed locks of brilliant white hair. His eyes were a deep blue and he wore a long red and gold robe that reached to his feet. Another roar from the dragon reminded Bobby of the peril they were all in and he realized that by stopping in surprise at the appearance of this little man, he and Hank had most likely doomed themselves.

The old man's right eyebrow was cocked and he was grinning as he pointed a finger at Hank."Ranger!" the little man said in an authoritative voice. A beam of yellow light flashed from the end of that finger and exploded as it hit Hank's left hand. When the light died away, he was holding a stringless bow. Hank reached out his right hand to where a string should have been and Bobby gasped as a string and an arrow, both of pure light, appeared on the bow. Without pausing, Hank drew back the string of light and fired the bow into the chest of the advancing dragon, which was now no more than a dozen yards away. The beast bellowed in pain as the arrow hit home and stopped its advance. It clearly had not expected any of its prey to actually fight back.

"Barbarian!" the little man said then as he pointed at Bobby, who winced as he was also hit by a beam of yellow light. When the light faded, he was still cradling the baby unicorn in his arms, but he was also holding a heavy wooden club that was glowing with the same yellow light that had made up the arrow and string of Hank's bow. While Bobby was still staring at his new weapon, Hank gave him a hard shove towards the others at the base of the cliff. Bobby got the message. While they ran, he heard the old man's voice call out four more times. "Magician!" he cried, "Thief, Cavalier and Acrobat!" Each word was punctuated by a beam of light that struck one of the companions. Bobby was concentrating too hard on running to notice which word was reserved for which friend or what each beam of light did. He was also wondering exactly what they were going to do when they got to the base of the cliff. He could hear the monster approaching from behind, so Hank's arrow hadn't killed it and his own club seemed far too small to do any real damage to the beast.

As they reached the cliff base, Bobby saw it struck by a barrage of fire, lightning, ice, a cloud of gas and a stream of some kind of blackish-green liquid that melted the rock face like acid. Apparently, each of the dragon's heads had its own means of attack. Just as Bobby became sure that there was no escape left to the companions, Presto reached into a green, cone-shaped hat that Bobby was sure he hadn't possessed a moment before and drew out three long ropes with grappling hooks at the end of each. He tossed them effortlessly into the air and they continued up to the top of the cliff as if of their own accord, where they stuck firmly into the rock face.

Eric, Presto and Diana led the way up the side of the cliff. Hank grabbed the unicorn from Bobby and he, Bobby and Sheila wasted no time in following their friends up the ropes. While Hank's arrow hadn't proved deadly, it had apparently stunned and disoriented the beast, for all of its shots missed as it fired wildly at the companions. A bolt of lightning struck the rock face a few feet to Bobby's left, but he didn't allow himself to be distracted and continued to climb for all he was worth.

Eric and Presto reached the top of the cliff ahead of the others. Diana and Sheila were just a few feet below them and Hank and Bobby were bringing up the rear. Bobby heard Eric shout out in surprise and a flash of blue light exploded at the top of the cliff. The explosion had not come from one of the dragon's attacks. Oh no, Bobby thought, what now?